Enter Cambodia - Phnom Penh

Trip Start Feb 20, 2006
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Trip End Feb 20, 2007


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Monday, April 3, 2006

First impressions of Cambodia's Capital City Phnom Penh were very good indeed! The city was alot more cosmopolitan and built up than we expected! Lots of big 4x4's, traffic wardens on the streets, and alot of the buildings were very new and french looking! However this soon ended when we hit the backpacker area by the Lake in the northern part of the city. Down a little alleyway was backpackerville, the main guesthouse (and the nicest) in the area was full so we checked 3 more out and settled for the one with the cleanest beds - The Floating Island guesthouse was to be our base for 3 nights for a mere 4US per night! The whole place was build on the lake and the toilet was somewhat smelly! This was the first place we've been which was literally all backpackers, it was like being in England, all the restaurants had western menus and were expensive compared to Vietnam, you could even get a roast dinner on Sundays and all the bars showed DVDs in the night! We visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda which were both very impressive, the Russian Market and Wat Phnom (check out our pics.)
The 2 other main attractions (not really the right word) we visited were the Tuol Sleng Museum or Security Prison 21 (S-21) and the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek both reminants from Pol Pots Khymer Rouge regime which devasted the country between 1975 - 1978 Khmer Rouge Rules inside S-21!
Khmer Rouge Rules inside S-21!
 . These 2 visits were absolutely shocking to say the least. First we visited S-21, the detention and torture centre of the Khymer Rouge where 17,000 people were held, we took some photos but it didn't seem appropriate to take pics of the more graphic details. But its safe to say that Pol Pot made Hitler look like Mary Poppins! From S-21 we travelled to the Killing Fields, which were just as shocking as S-21. The Killing fields is where prisoners were taken from S-21 to be executed or exterminated as the Khymer Rouge called it. The remains of nearly 9,000 people many blindfolded were exhumed in 1980, and 43 of the 129 graves have been left untouched. The majority of the Cambodians were not killed with a bullet! To save vital bullets other barbaric methods were used to kill babies and adults alike! Our guide book describes a visit to both S-21 and the Killing fields as 'it demonstrates the darkest side of human spirit' this we would certainly agree with and the day was somewhat of an eye-opener and depressing! To cheer ourselves up in the evening we had dinner with Andy and Becky (our fellow British travellers we met in Saigon) at a lovely Thai restaurant by the river. From here we travelled south to Sihanoukville, Cambodias most developed beach resort.
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